Property Times

Rome : Timid start of the year - Q1 2014

The Italian economy is starting to recover despite having registered a negative GDP growth in 2013 (-1.9% for Italy and -1.7% for Rome). However a more positive trend on the global and European levels combined with a stronger domestic demand, should help the GDP to improve in 2014 with Rome slightly underperforming the national average. However the labour market will remain challenging and the unemployment rate should increase further in 2014. Despite following a similar trend, the Rome economy should however experience a lower unemployment rate, potentially reaching a level of 12.2% in 2014, inferior to the 13% forecasted at a national level.

Following a strong performance in Q4, the market activity came back to a lower level with approximately 13,000 of take-up recorded in Q1 2014. After exceptional results in Q4 mainly linked to 3 deals above 10,000 sqm, corporates have been more active on the medium-size segment (1,000 - 2,500 sqm). In terms of location, they have favoured Centre and Semi-centre submarkets where they can find better quality of office space.